Arrested For DUI: Going To Trial
After you have been arrested for DUI, in instances where prosecutor at the District Attorney’s office and a lawyer cannot reach a pleas bargain agreement, or if the DA feels that the evidence against you is very strong, he or she may elect to take the DUI case to trial which can last for one day much longer depending on the charges filed against you, the weight of the evidence and on whether or not there are aggravating circumstances such as drugs, destruction of property, physical injury to others or if the DWI/DUI offense resulted in vehicular homicide. During this phase, the jury selection process will begin. While you will not be present during this stage, your attorney will be in constant contact with you.
During the opening of the trial, the prosecutor and the DUI Defense Attorney will provide the jury with a brief overview of your case and each will layout how they plan to prove your guilt or innocence.
It is the state or county prosecutor’s job to argue against you on behalf of the people to attempt to get a conviction, while your attorney has the burden to punch holes in the DA’s evidence to prove you are not guilty of the crime levied against you. Before the trial and at any time during the trial, the seated judge can issue handling advice to the jury which can greatly affect the jury’s judgment of the evidence. If you do not waive your rights to a trial, the state has 90 days to bring its case before a jury in court. If on the other hand you do waive your rights to s speedy trial, it may be up to one full year before your case goes to trial.
Once both attorneys are done arguing your case, closing remarks will be presented and the trial by jury will come to a close. During this time, the jury will be briefed by the judge and thy will begin the deliberating process. Deliberation can take up to 1 hour up to one day or more.
Once the jury has reached a verdict, they will notify the judge and the conclusion of the trail will resume with the reading of the jury’s verdict. If you get an innocent verdict, then you will be immediately released. All the charges that you faced when you were arrested for DUI will be dismissed. If you get a guilty verdict, then the judge will then sentence you according to the minimum to maximum degrees of punishment that he or she is allowed to under the laws of the state and county that you were charged in.
